Always back the horse named self-interest, son. It'll be the only one trying
We wrote earlier in the week about Saturday’s tragic death on the track in Timaru of the highly talented Group 1 placed 3-year-old trotting filly Mexicana, and raised a number of unanswered questions about the matter. Upon further investigation we now have more. They are of grave concern, literally and figuratively. 1. Death on the […]
Mexicana was a seemingly fit and healthy high class three-year-old square gaiting filly who started her career as a juvenile at the All Stars barn of Rasmussen and Purdon. She ran four placings from four starts for them, and then was transferred to the stable of Josh Dickie. Dickie won two races in a row […]
Colin De Felippi is one of New Zealand’s oldest and most successful trot drivers. Flip’s been around forever, and at age 69 has learnt more tricks than the average punter has had hot dinners. He’s got away with more than a few of them over the years too. Not this one. See the horse in […]
After reading the new NZ harness race starting regulations that are aimed to ensure that NZ races in future run on time, I got in touch with Catherine McDonald the GM of Racing at HRNZ to ask how these changes will achieve their stated goal. It’s a big issue because Kiwi races are regularly being […]
Changes have been made to the rules around blood spinning in the harness racing industry. But Harness Racing New Zealand is refusing to go public with the revised rules. The process of blood spinning, also known as ACS or PRP, involves collecting blood from the horse using a needle, processing it in a laboratory, and […]
Dr Michael Henley Rewei Brown. Mobile equine veterinary surgeon. Rangiora. Just across the road from Woodend Beach. No office to speak of, but a great big back yard with a driveway that would fit a float, and brick walls all around. Presently in possession of the blood spinning machine formerly the property of Equine Blood […]
The New Zealanders are introducing new harness race starting regulations as of the New Year. One of the rules is that the starter has to have these. Bolt cutters. A knife. A shovel and a rake. I live 3000 miles away, and I’m afraid already. Never mess with a Kiwi starter. You might end up […]
Racing horses on the anti-inflammatory painkiller Phenylbutazone – commonly known as Bute – is both a serious breach of the racing rules, and highly dangerous. In 2002 Damien Oliver’s brother Jason was killed in tragic circumstances after a horse racing on Bute in a trial snapped its leg and collapsed under him. The horse’s trainer […]
I hate to tell Harness Racing New Zealand this, but 4.00.5 minus 3.56.6 actually equals 3.9 seconds, not 4.9. What does it matter though? Fifty metres? Seventy metres? A hundred? A thousand? It’s all just academic isn’t it? You can run too fast as you like and fly even higher when you’re on this gear. […]
For a long time now there have been a growing number of NZ harness racing participants decrying the dominance of the Robert Dunn and Mark Purdon stables, and saying that there is something very, very wrong about the way they dominate the feature events in the country, particularly in the South Island. After what we […]
